Westland Distillery Wedding at New Year’s Eve
Overall theme for the Ceremony and Reception
“Since our wedding took place on New Year’s Eve, we combined a winter theme featuring soft, icy blues and whites with metallic accents. We incorporated the soft blue in the flower arrangements and the grooms/groomsmen outfits, my bridal jewelry, bridal shoes and table napkins for dinner. The Silver and Gold accents were incorporated across the whole length of the Kings Table during dinner, the flower arrangements, and my bridesmaid dresses. The bridesmaids picked any dress they wanted, as long it was glittery and metallic – it looked great!”
Tell us about your Wedding Budget
We stayed under budget. I saved money primarily in three places:
- The Venue: “They allowed us to bring in our own alcohol (beer, wine & Champagne). Not only did this keep us under budget, but it also allowed us to pick exactly what we wanted (without having to limit ourselves to whatever the caterer or venue had available). We ended up getting almost all of it from Costco!”
- Flowers: “I wanted to keep the wedding classy and elegant without going overboard and since the venue itself had so much character, it meant that I didn’t have to spend a lot on the flowers. We used them sparingly – just to bring a pop of the soft winter blue to the space. We did use huge bunches of babys breath to line the aisle and then re-purposed them for the Kings Table at dinner. These were incredibly inexpensive. We also used a friend who does floral arrangements as a side business, so we avoided the typical price mark-ups you incur with traditional florists. The truth is that if you have a cool venue, you really don’t need to cover it in flowers.”
- Wedding Dress: “Believe it or not, my husband’s suit was almost twice as expensive as my dress! To be fair, I got really lucky – After making appointments all over Seattle and trying on 30+ dresses (mostly just for fun!) I happened to find it at a local boutique that was closing – it was the first dress that I put on that day and walked out of the store with it 20 minutes later. I had all of the alterations done by a wonderful seamstress renown for her work with wedding dresses, located down the street from my house.”
Wedding Invitations
“I am very fortunate that my best friends mother designs invitations as a side hobby. Her work is phenomenal and she insisted that her wedding gift to us would be designing our save the date, invitation and thank-you cards, not to mention the table numbers, table cards, and other signage. She is incredibly talented, and there is nothing like receiving a hand-crafted invitation. Many of our guests said that it was the most beautiful invitation that they have ever received.”
Groom’s Attire
“He wanted to get something special that hinted to his British roots while not being a full-fledged Morning Suit. After searching Seattle and a handful of other US cities, he ended up getting a be-spoke suit from London. He had pants, a jacket and vest made and it looked sharp! My favorite part was the dueling jacket, mostly because it had a neat name! In terms of design it was somewhere between traditional tux tails and Morning Coat tails. It was fun to have Neil so excited and involved in finding the outfit he would wear. I feel that sometimes weddings can be all about the bridal gown, but really the bride and the groom should feel equally dressed-up and special.”
Groomsmen Gifts
“Since we were getting married at Westland Whiskey Distillery and my husband is British, he bought each of his groomsmen a fancy flask from Fortnum & Mason in London and a bottle of Westland Whiskey. You can image how well this all went over! It was fun, easy, but also very personal and set the tone for an awesome day.
Best advice while planning your wedding?
“The best advice I received: ‘This is your day, so make it your own!’ We really took this advice to heart and simply picked a bunch of our favorite things (food, wine, dessert, music) and brought them all together for the wedding!
A few examples of this was that our wedding started much later than most, we had it in a non-traditional venue, I refused to have the wedding party in matching outfits, we picked our favorite foods to serve and, because I am obsessed with Cinnabon, had our caterer build a Cinnabon cake for us! All of this was decided without consideration of whether or not it would meet our guests’ expectations. We figured that if we loved it, then so would our families and closet friends – which turned out to be exactly what happened! The whole experience was much more authentic because of this.”
Describe the Bridesmaids’ Attire
“I had 4 bridesmaids – my 3 best friends and my sister. They vary in shape and size – from a size 0 up to a size 14 and more than anything else I wanted each of them to feel comfortable and beautiful in their bridesmaid dresses. This was one of the reasons why I decided to give them some guidance and then let each of them pick whichever dress they wanted. All I asked was for them to pick something metallic to go with the Winter/NYE theme. I didn’t care if it was silver, gold of champagne in hue, as long as it was sparkly. I didn’t care if they chose a short or a long dress – whatever they were most comfortable in. As for shoes, they had free reign to pick whatever they liked but, in the end, all picked sparkly shoes to match their dress. And they looked AMAZING on the day and had a lot of fun shopping and sending each other pictures as they were deciding which dresses to buy.”
Bridal Fashion, Make up & Gifts
“I bought my veil at I do Bridal in Seattle. I wanted a very basic veil that wouldn’t distract from the dress. While, I Do had a huge variety of veils, I found exactly what I wanted here and received many compliments on its elegance and simplicity.”
“I had a wonderful time finding my accessories. My necklace, earrings and hair pin were all vintage 1940’s pieces. Fortunately, the light blue jewels of the necklace (which was the first piece I bought) were very popular in the 40’s so it was easy for me to find matching earrings at a different vintage jeweler. In the months leading up to the wedding I slowly collected beautiful vintage pendants that matched my color scheme and ended up pinning them onto the flower bouquets on the day-of. Exploring the vintage shops and slowly collecting one piece at a time was very fun leading up to the big day.”
Wedding Favors
“Continuing with the theme of truly making the whole day/night our own, my mother-in-law and I handmade our favors the day before the wedding. They were clear, plastic cones filled with Muddy Buddies (rice cereal coated in melted chocolate, peanut butter and a sprinkling of powered sugar), and tied with ribbon that matched our wedding colors. They were put out right after midnight and were the perfect late-night treat after an evening of celebrating. This is a treat that my best friends and I have been making for years, so it was fun to incorporate them into the wedding.”
We simply love this ooey gooey looking cinnamon bun wedding cake! What a unique and delectable idea.
Where did you go on your honeymoon?
“We had the most amazing honeymoon! We started by flying to London (Le Meridien Hotel, Piccadilly) where my husband is from and where we had a second, smaller wedding party with his friends and family who couldn’t make it on NYE. From there we spent 4 days in Dubai soaking up the sun at the Four Seasons on the Palm and exploring the city.
“From there we headed to the Maldives for a week which was beyond beautiful. In the Maldives we stayed at Anantara Veli. We have traveled all over the world and this was by far the most luxurious experience of them all. After the Maldives we had a 8 hour layover in Hong King which afforded us enough time to quickly explore the city before having to head back to Seattle. In total, we were gone for just over 2 weeks.”
Meredith
Despite her dreamy wedding blogger lifestyle, Meredith's day job is running ClassicVeils.com and a full-time mom to an active toddler. If she could, Meredith would spend her days taking cruises, helping animals in need, and watching Big Brother!
